Monday, April 26, 2010

Gordon's Latest EU Brownie

In the debate last week Gordon Brown seemed to pick a figure out of the air when he asserted that 3 million jobs would be at risk if we left the EU. Tony Blair used to use a similar figure, but no one seemed to quite know where it came from.

We know that Gordon Brown is an inveterate liar. The only question that remains is whether the Labour followers will still vote for him and his band of fools and incompetents after the destruction they have wrought over the past 13 years. If they do then they deserve everything they get: this goes for Lib Dems who would help keep him in power too. I would like to point out though that I do not deserve it. So don't let him back in either through the front or back door. Please.

Ian, ordinary people are confused about the merits of the three party and the two party system and what exactly the problem is with proportional representation. I have tried to explain simply, and hope I have all the points right.

If anyone wants to jump in and explain this for the public, please do. It is vital that everyone understands this before they vote. Thank you.

Even if it DID mean the loss of 3 million jobs - that would just mean 3 million EU immigrants departing our shores for more lucrative destinations.

Still, Dave is doing nothing about our servitude to the EU. He sent Clarke to tell Sarkozy and Merkel that their Franco-German Reich has nothing to fear from a Conservative Government ..... which is why there isn't going to be one.

All you need to know about Proportional Representation is that if it did not give Liberal Democrats more MP's they would be against it.

That's it.

Every other argument is spurious.

For a political party to campaign for a scrapping of the voting system so that it can put in place a different voting system that unjustly favours itself (indeed put it permanantly in power) tells you a lot about the Liberal Democrat Party. Indeed it tells you all you need to know about the Liberal Democrat Party.

They are political opportunists gambling on an election where neither of the two main coalitions (the one on the Right or the one on the Left) has an absolute majority majority. They will then insist on a change in the voting system as the price of any support.

Once they get the voting system of their choice they will then always be in power.

We might as well cancel elections because they will always be in power.

The ST piece you link to doesn't really prove or disprove - it just refers to earlier use of the term by Tony Blair and mentions a Single Market report from the EU.

Those of us with long memories recall similar figures being used way back in the original EU accession referendum in the 70s - I have a vague memory of the figure Ted Heath quoted being "2 million jobs" at that time.

It is useful to challenge these things and Brown is a past master of glib, unprovable or less-than-consistent instant factoids. It is nevertheless true that withdrawal from the EU would have an effect on UK employment levels, as at least some gain is experienced from single market mechanisms - this would be stronger if we were in the Euro. One key issue now is the access to open public tendering across the EU for UK companies.

However, I am sure we would also gain employment from reductions in external trade barriers, plus of course the released public spending from no longer contributing to EU budgets.

It would be quite helpful if a think tank would do a really good analysis on this so we could have some objectivity.

Par for the course with these dreadful people.We've had 13 years of dubious stats and figures.As for the EU, they have done far more damage than good, ruined rather than improved, and cost for more than is good for our economy.We are better orff out than in.